Things I Learnt In the Pandemic
A reminder to all that’s important in life.
2020 left us all with a lot of gaps in our lives. What began as a fresh new decade for many, left most of us upset and worrying in a few month’s time. Within a span of a few weeks, our lives came to a standstill. Offices became remote, relationships became fragile and baking became everyone’s new hobby? JK.
Quarantine began with people setting unrealistic goals.
I’m going to lose an insane amount of weight.
I’m going to read 10 books.
I will start painting again.
You get the drift. Most people thought of it as a mini-vacation, and well that feeling ended just as fast as it settled.
Within a few weeks, we all realized that we were working non-stop and maybe, just living the same day over and over again.
As we maybe entering the end of this mad phase (fingers crossed), there are somethings that I genuinely felt like I’d forgotten, and have learnt again. Here are my top 10.
Health is very important.
I live in India. In my country, people died because they didn’t have access to oxygen. And not a few people, over 4 million died here. Everyday for three months, I woke up with the uncertainty of what bad news that day would bring. When my parents and sibling had Covid, I lived everyday in fear. I saw my brother-in-law taking support of an oxygen cylinder to breathe. He is only 35! I also woke up to the news of a classmate who expired. She was just 26! So, I had a hard time. A really hard time.
The one thing that all of this kept highlighting was, that health is all that matters. Seeing a doctor when you’re sick, is important. Getting routine checkups is important. Eating healthy is important, and so is movement.
It took a long time for me to come to this realization but I’m glad it’s here.
If you can, save money.
Finance is important. If you think spending all your money is wise, then you’re the biggest fool there is. Having at least 6 months of your salary saved up, is necessary to fight any uncertainties that life may throw at us. Now, I understand not everyone has the luxury to do this, and some people really have to live paycheck-to-paycheck. But, if you can, save whatever little you can.
The pandemic showed us the dark side of the corporate sector, where so many people who were once happily employed lost their jobs. In times like this, you need a cushion to fallback on, and your savings are that cushion.
It also showed us the importance of side hustles and not putting all your eggs in one basket. I can’t stress enough on the need of expanding your streams of income. If you have a skill, learn to monetize it!
Relationships are all that matter.
A lot of people including me, lost some very close people through the pandemic. I may appear to be strong, but it broke me in so many pieces. Some I still try and collect to bring myself together on a few days.
It emphasized the importance of relationships in our lives. In this race of productivity, lifestyle and modernity, we sideline our relationships the most. When you truly felt lost, and needed a shoulder to cry on, it was your friends and family who were around. So please prioritize your relationships. They’re the ones who’re going to comfort you when the apocalypse arrives. Not your money, your career or your fancy lifestyle.
You think you have time.
Every time you log onto Instagram and Twitter, you see a quote saying “Cest La Vie or Life is short or Seize the Day”. You smile and think of it for a minute, and carry on with your day. I know this, because I did the same. But I’ve come to the realization that Time is the biggest scam that there is. You think you have time, but my dear friend, the joke’s on you.
By the time I was stressing about being 23, and wasting life, I was 27. Life truly is short. And your years with the people in your life are limited. So stop pushing things on tomorrow, and start living the day. Because, before you know it, all this will become a memory and you’ll live in regret. Mankind is far from creating a time-machine. You, my friend, really need to live today.
Life is beyond what you understand of it.
Every time I go to a beach or a mountain, or a beautiful destination, I find myself staring into the abyss. I look into the ocean for hours, admiring it’s calmness and beauty, and the fact that it’s so serene. The same thing happens to me when I look at a mountain. It’s size petrifies me but also gives me courage. It tells me that there’s nothing I can’t handle. It also makes me feel like my worries and troubles are too small for this world. That all I am is a tiny speck in the grand scheme of things, and I really don’t have to take life so seriously.
We all have a checklist of a few things that we have to achieve in order to “make it” in life. We’re all hustling hard, every single day. We’re productive, we’re out there, we’re minting money and we’re gaining exposure. But if you look at it from afar, what does all that even mean. Life’s so much more than retirement at 40, a house in the suburbs and a fancy Mercedes. It’s so much more than what you and I can even understand. To be honest, it doesn’t need to be understood, all we have to do is live it. Every second, every minute, every day!
Being kind is very easy.
I believe in Karma. I believe that you have to pay for all your actions in this life, and I also very strongly believe that mean people hurt others for no reason. Not all of us are inherently kind, and most of us hide behind our own insecurities when we’re being mean. But what’s easy is, to take a step back, and think before you say something to others.
Being mean in the spur of the moment is easy, and you may apologize for it, once you’re done. But you will seldom be able to make up for how rude you were to a person. You see how a broken vase can never be repaired? Same goes for broken hearts. You may not care about the person in the long run, but you ought to own up for your actions. Being kind to people is easy, and they will like you so much more for being a kind, true person!
Expectations are the root of all heartache.
This one hits close to home, because well, it caused me a lot of heartache. We all indulge in self-sabotaging behaviors because we expect from others, and when they don’t deliver it hurts us. Expecting from people who are close to us, is normal. All of us do it at some point, despite of how hurtful it may be.
It hurts us because we expect from other us around us, but don’t communicate it to them. We expect the people close to us to be mind readers, and think that they’ll just act how we expect them to. If we simply choose to voice our opinions/wishes, we will save the trouble of expectations and simply know what’s going to happen. In doing so, we liberate ourselves and the other person of an unsaid burden, and just co-exist in harmony.
Mindfulness comes with practice.
We all know the importance of mindfulness. The dictionary describes it as “a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.”
Being mindful is something that everyone around us preaches. But what we don’t realize is that it doesn’t happen in a nanosecond. You won’t start being mindful the minute you decide, you have to be. It’s a slow habit that comes with practice. So try and do a little of it everyday.
Humanize everything.
I’m the biggest advocate of humanizing everything around us. I have strong views about how in the race of making everything a process, we as humans have forgotten the key factor that differentiated us from machines.
We need to start humanizing things around us. If someone tells you they like you, don’t laugh at them. Accept it. It takes so much to put yourself out there knowing the other person won’t feel how you do! There is so much strength in vulnerability and in today’s time and age, humanizing things is a superpower.
So the next time, someone is being a complete asshole about your emotions, tell them nicely to be mindful of what they’re saying. And never ever, be ashamed of putting yourself on the line!
You’re your own hero!
Last, but definitely the most important. Stop victimizing yourself. I’m sure the trauma that you’re facing in life is massive and there’s no one in the world who can understand it better than you do, but you know something else? You’re perhaps the only person who can save you from that trauma!
You have to stop waiting for people to come for your rescue. Your parents, your lovers, your partners, they aren’t your heroes! You’re the main character of your story, and it’s about time you start acting like it. The next time you think you need someone’s support, become that person for yourself, and pick yourself up! You got this, legit all of this and even superman is human! :)
The pandemic may not be over but these learnings have definitely imprinted themselves on my heart. Do you have things that you’re grateful to the pandemic for? I’d love to know of them in the comments.
